Nick Nolte Rocks the House at 'The Company You Keep' Q&A, from Redford to Draft Dodging to Malick

Robert Redford is an impeccably controlled filmmaker who takes his art seriously. While none of his films have been as accessibly commercial as "Ordinary People," which won him the directing Oscar, this movie is Redford's best since "Quiz Show."

"This story meant something to Bob," said Nolte, "he was intimate with it, lived with it, gave it a lot of thought, it was gnawing at him. He's an artist who gets entangled with his work." As a director he's not an authority figure, he said.

Back in the 60s, "I didn't want to go to war," Nolte said. "I couldn't imagine myself killing anybody." He drove a hearse registered in his name off a cliff onto the 9th hole of a golf course, and thousands of fake IDs were discovered with it. He was told, "You're a felon, now you can't go to Viet Nam."

"This film took be back to that time," he said. "I'm glad I never went to war." Redford asked him to flip the peace sign for the first time in some 20 years: "It was pretty cool."

As for working with Terrence Malick on one of his untitled movies, Nolte made fun of how the director shoots three-quarters of a scene--which freaks out the actors not wanting to land on the cutting room floor-- and waits to shoot at magic hour every day. "Look at this tree!" "Let's shoot the caterpillar!"